Columbus, OH May 13, 2002 While its repairmen sit anxiously by their phones, waiting for the customer calls that never come, elsewhere Maytag Corp.'s information technology staff has been busy seeking ways to connect the appliance company to its trading partners.
Now Maytag has signed an agreement to use an electronic trading network service hosted by Sterling Commerce to exchange electronic data interchange (EDI)-based documents with essential trading partners, including customers, suppliers, freight carriers and financial institutions anywhere around the world.
Information Broker is the core hosted B2B communications and transformation service in Sterling Commerce's electronic trading network portfolio, providing a single connection point for an enterprise to communicate and transact with all of its business partners. According to the solution provider, the service provides "any-to-any" data transformation services, supporting legacy communication protocols as well as emerging Internet communication transports, including EDI-INT.
By relying on the hosted STERLING Information Broker, Maytag is aiming to reduce the costs associated with handling paper documents manually, improve the accuracy of data and speed business communications.
"Sterling Commerce's electronic trading network services have helped us realize substantial efficiencies and reduce costs, and we expect to save even more in the future through this agreement," said Randy Wadle, vice president of information technology and business information officer for Maytag Appliances. "Over our 10-plus year relationship, Sterling Commerce has provided solid and flexible solutions, competitive pricing and quality service. It made perfect sense for us to continue this relationship with the current agreement for STERLING Information Broker."
In addition to Information Broker, Maytag uses several other solutions from the provider including GENTRAN:Server, CONNECT:Direct, and CONNECT:Enterprise IDX.
Sterling Commerce is a wholly owned subsidiary of SBC Communications Inc.
